


It Was Safe Here

by notaguitarfret



Series: "They're all girlfriends" AU [42]
Category: Heathers (1988), Heathers: The Musical - Murphy & O'Keefe
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, cws in authors note
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-24 20:46:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30078081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notaguitarfret/pseuds/notaguitarfret
Summary: Heather Chandler and Heather McNamara hatch a plan when they discover why Heather Duke isn't ready to go home quite yet.
Relationships: Heather Chandler/Heather Duke, Heather Chandler/Heather Duke/Heather McNamara/Veronica Sawyer, Heather Chandler/Heather McNamara, Heather Chandler/Veronica Sawyer, Heather Duke/Heather McNamara, Heather Duke/Veronica Sawyer, Heather McNamara/Veronica Sawyer
Series: "They're all girlfriends" AU [42]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1053590
Comments: 19
Kudos: 81





	1. I'm Not Ready

**Author's Note:**

> CONTENT WARNINGS: bulimia, abuse mention

“I wanted to do a nice happy greeting, but instead I have to warn you that you have a problem up ahead.’

Betty, Martha and JD had all met them by a window that Duke had happily perched herself on. Well, happy was a stretch. Content might be a better word. She hadn’t exactly been joyful at any point throughout the entire morning, it was starting to get excessive, even for her. It made Heather so sure that she was still keeping a lot from her, even though she had confessed she was upset because of her parents, because there had been  _ plenty _ of times she had been upset with her parents and she had recovered the next day. It was down to the sad fact of ‘growing numb from it’, but still. She wouldn’t even turn away from the scenery outside, though it was grey and dim, to greet any of the newcomers.

Heather followed Betty’s gaze as she nodded up the few steps next to them. She had been speaking to Veronica, but it concerned her too.

“Oooh, look who decided to show her face,” Veronica commented, having also turned to see the figure furiously marching towards them.

“Oh, she looks mad,” JD said, coming to stand next to her. “And she’s looking at you directly. Good look, babe!” He shoved her forward playfully, to which she grunted at him indignantly.

“I love having support from my  _ boyfriend, _ ” she snarked, before turning back to the huffing girl stopping just a few feet away, glowering at her dangerously. Not that it was scary, Courtney wasn’t all that tall.

“What the hell did you do?” she hissed. Heather just smiled innocently at her.

“Whatever do you mean?”

“You - or  _ somebody _ here, knows  _ exactly _ what I mean.” She shot an accusatory glare to all of them. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed. People have been whispering about me all goddamn week, and I want  _ answers. _ ” She reached out and grabbed her collar, sneering, “What did you tell them?”

Heather slapped her hand off in disgust. “You’re delusional,” she said, feeling a twinge of guilt for pretty much gaslighting her, but she reminded herself that it was different from when her parents did it to her. Courtney actually deserved it. “I haven’t spread anything about you.”

“It  _ has _ to be you!” Courtney barked. “I know you’re upset that I insulted your little loser posse.” She eyed Betty, Martha, JD, Veronica and Duke in disdain. “It’s not my fault you let a bunch of nobodies infiltrate your friendship group, I was just pointing out the obvious!”

“Now, if you keep talking like that, maybe I  _ will _ spread a rumour about you,” Heather said. “How’s,  _ ‘the amount of times I’ve seen Courtney not wash her hands after using the restroom is gag-inducing, to say the least.’ _ ”

The group (except Duke) chuckled quietly while Courtney looked disgusted.

“That’s not even  _ true! _ ”

“Doesn’t have to be true. They’ll believe me.” She examined her nails, looking aloof. That only enraged Courtney more.

“You spread something! Tell me what it is, Chandler!” she demanded furiously. “Nobody will tell me. Whatever it is, you’re going to tell me right n-”

“Oh,  _ fuck off, _ Courtney,” Duke suddenly spoke up, turning her head away from the window at last to shoot her an irritated glare. “Take your damage elsewhere, would you? Literally none of us care about some random preppy bitch scared of what some randos in the school are saying about her. You’ll be forgotten as soon as we all leave for college, hell, you’d be forgotten  _ now _ if you didn’t constantly whine like a stuck up, spoiled little brat.”

Courtney, as well as everyone else, was understandably taken aback by the sudden outburst. Perhaps it wouldn’t have seemed so harsh, had Duke not looked so disinterested. She didn’t even hold her gaze, she just turned back around and gestured for her to leave with a flick of her wrist. Courtney let out a frustrated grunt, but exited the scene and made sure to glare at Heather snidely on the way out. Once she was out of sight, she laughed out loud.

“Oh, she is  _ mad, _ ” she chortled. “Coming up with a non-existent rumour was  _ perfect, _ Heather.” She glanced at Duke, hoping to catch her eye to give her some praise, but she didn’t turn around. She gave a shrug, to Heather’s disappointment.

The group frowned at her, and while Mac decided to sit next to her on the window sill, she heard Martha lean to Veronica and whisper,

“Is she okay?”

“Um… she’s…” Veronica stammered, wondering what to say that wouldn’t get his head bitten off by Duke.

“Her parents are… getting on her nerves,” Heather quickly said, saving Veronica the stress. That shouldn’t reveal more than Duke would have liked; everyone gets irritated by their parents.

“That’s one way to put it,” Duke muttered, mostly to herself. Mac scratched the back of her neck nervously.

“So, should we go grab lunch? Since we’re all here,” she asked, looking around the group. The mood lifted and everyone agreed.

“I’ll catch up,” Heather told them. “I just need to get today’s question for lunchtime poll.” She left with them down the hallway, but stopped when they reached a turn.

“I also need the bathroom, so, I’ll catch up too,” JD added, hurrying off ahead of the group. Heather went in the opposite direction, and just before she reached the door to the student room, an arm slammed in front of her. She stepped backwards, immediately growing irritated upon seeing Courtney again. Didn’t she ever quit?

“I know you did something,’ she growled. ‘I’m not giving up until you tell me what.”

“Fuck off and stop bothering me, you goddamn leech.” She pushed her arm aside and tried walking towards the door again, only for her to step in her way.

“And here I thought you were wise in picking friends and enemies, Heather,” she hummed patronisingly. “As of late, it appears that isn’t true.”

“I know what I’m doing, so quit acting like I’m  _ falling from grace _ or whatever you want to call it. Those people sit at my table because I let them. They’re Veronica’s friends, so I’d rather they not be harassed by bitches like you. And, you know, I’m dating one of them, of course,” she quickly amended. Courtney’s eyes narrowed.

“So you’re picking loserdome over people actually worthy of recognition now?” She not-so-subtly gestured to herself. “You’re a disappointment.”

“If it pisses you off, that’s fine by me.” She went to step around her, but Courtney wasn’t finished.

“Fine. If that’s how you want to play this, then maybe I’ll just find something to spread about  _ you. _ You know, to make it even.”

Heather laughed out loud at that. “Good luck getting people believing you. Why do you think no one ever bothers us, hm? I make  _ sure _ they don’t.” She turned to sneer at her. “Spreading lies about me won’t get you anywhere.”

Courtney took a step back, but brushed her threat off. “You’re not exactly as respected as you once were, Heather. Hence my whole warning about the friends you’re picking.” She cocked her head to the side and smirked. “Besides, I wasn’t going to spread a lie. I’m  _ sure _ behind that perfect little image you’ve made for yourself, there’s something  _ dreadfully _ embarrassing that you’d hate for anyone to get their claws on.”

Heather did her best to keep her expression from changing.

“Then I wish you luck finding whatever secrets you expect to find somehow. You’ll  _ need _ it.” She straightened herself up, brushing non-existent dust off of her collar as if the mere presence of Courtney was making her filthy. “Meanwhile, I’ll find a  _ lot _ of entertainment in your weird obsession with me.”

“It’s not an  _ obsession- _ ”

“Yeah, yeah. Have fun stalking me to figure out what’s happening in my personal life!” she sang over her shoulder as she walked away. “Totally not weird of you at all!”

She was soon out of her view, having stepped into the student room to grab her clipboard from Peter. She read over the question several times on her way back to the cafeteria, but it was hard to focus. As amusing as her argument with Courtney had been, the thought of her actually figuring something out did alarm her, whether she wanted to admit it or not. It’s not that she felt insecure about her choice in friends - even times when she thought she regretted expanding her bubble the way she did, she immediately shook the thought away when remembering what had happened last time she had disregarded Veronica’s friends as little more than the scum of the school that she could take advantage of whenever she wanted.

She wasn’t going to go back to that state of mind all because Courtney didn’t approve of her decisions. As daunting as the status quo change had been, she knew it was for the best to rid of that toxic mindset. But since she was making that choice, it seemed now she was an easy target for sabotage. And there was a  _ lot _ of material one could use, if they found out somehow. Small things, like how her relationship with JD wasn’t real, or that she hasn’t seen a Remington party invite in ages, and didn’t want to see one ever again. Or there were the bigger things, like her  _ actual _ choice in partners, or her reasonings for being so much more wary at parties. If any of those things got out, she knew it would be the end. Sure, Duke had managed to stay in power, but she wasn’t sure if she could be quite as strong as her if it came out that she was pansexual. Last time people had assumed she was attracted to women, hell had broken loose, and… she never wanted to go through that again.

The exception being her family, of course. That hadn’t bothered her at all. Coming out was little more than a tool to cut them out of her life for good.

She unfortunately found herself wondering if it would be better to separate the lunch tables again; perhaps she’d be safer that way. Not even just her - all four of them would be safe. Then that thought was dismissed upon seeing Veronica so happy to have Betty and Martha with him, laughing as he attempted to toss popcorn into Betty’s mouth from one corner of the table to another. No, she absolutely could not return to the old status quo, even if it benefited her a lot more. She had to stop being so selfish.

Then she found herself wondering, what of her reputation? She wasn’t about to deny that it was definitely crumbling. People still looked up to her, sure, but how long would that last? Would her newfound generosity slowly erode it away until she was just a face in the crowd?

But  _ that _ thought got chased away while she was travelling around table to table, when she saw JD in the line for lunch, later than the rest of the group due to his trip to the bathroom, probably. A couple of guys were pushing and shoving him, all to cut in front of him in the queue. Well that just wouldn’t do. She marched over and grabbed his arm, pinning all three boys with a piercing glare.

“Is there a problem here?” she spat. Their brave, cocky expressions all collapsed, frightened ones being left behind in their place. They slowly shook their heads, awkwardly and fearfully. One of them stepped backwards in line, as if offering JD his place back, but she just scoffed scornfully and walked forward, until the two of them were right at the front. She felt bad for the girl who was about to grab a tray and walk through to grab her food, but it was worth it to gain the satisfaction of having JD grin at not having to wait in line any longer. When the girl behind them shot them a disgruntled look, she glowered at her threateningly, which got her to lower her head.

“Nice, I love boyfriend privileges,” JD said, grabbing a tray. He stepped aside and gestured to the space next to him. “You coming?”

“I’ll be there in a bit, I still have to bother some people with today’s question.” She stepped away. “See you later.”

So, no, she wasn’t going to change anything about her relationships to get Courtney off her back. If Courtney wanted to try and have her revenge with her, then so be it. If she suffered because of her, then surely, surely it would be worth it.

* * *

“The only way she could ever figure something out is if she followed you home and watched you through a window,” Duke grunted from the island table, sitting on a stool as Heather and Mac wandered around the kitchen, different ingredients in hand.

“You know, I wouldn’t put it past her for going that far,” Heather mused as she whisked the rue forming in the pan, while Mac slowly added the milk. “But if that were to happen, I could just make fun of her for being a fucking creep.”  _ But not before she’d tell the whole school I was fucking my two female friends and then my other non binary one. _ She shook the thought away. That wouldn’t happen, especially if she was careful. Courtney wouldn’t  _ actually _ go that far.

_ But she wants revenge, so I shouldn’t get too comfortable. _ If it were one little rumour she wanted vengeance for she wouldn’t be so worried, but she could tell her dislike of her and her choices in friends were becoming a lot more apparent. She knew how the school worked, once one person becomes brave enough to stand up against her, so will everyone else.

“She’s got the overthinking things face,” Duke said. Heather snapped out of her thoughts, but by then, Mac was already waving a hand in front of her.

“Heather, it’ll be fine! You’re only worrying because you actually know about the things she could find out, but she won’t find out! You’ll be okay.”

“Hm, I suppose you’re right.”

“If she does find out, then we can just own it,” Duke suggested. Heather’s chest tightened at the thought, and it seems Duke saw the frightened look on her face at the thought. “ _ Or _ we can threaten her to stay silent or commit social suicide. Whichever one works for you.”

“Second one sounds good,” she replied. “Okay, that’s enough milk, I think. How’s the pasta doing?”

Mac took a fork and picked a piece out to eat it.

“Al dente. Almost ready.”

“Perfect.” She tipped the mozzarella, parmesan and cheddar into the rue and mixed it around until it was all melted and mixed, the sauce stretchy. “This is going to give you such a hard time, Heather.”

“Since when have I cared?” Mac huffed, taking a spoon to taste test it. “Hm. Needs paprika.”

“Paprika? In mac ‘n cheese?” Duke asked.

“Trust me, it tastes  _ great. _ ” She sprinkled some in there and mixed it around. “Okay, these should both be done, let’s bake it.”

Heather brought out the baking tray and watched Mac pour the macaroni in, followed by the cheesy sauce, and as she mixed those together, she brought out the leftover cheese to sprinkle it on top. In the oven it went, leaving them waiting and talking amongst themselves for about fifteen minutes. Mac took her opportunity when Heather was standing up from placing the pasta in the oven to wrap her arms around her from behind. She did flinch, but swallowed it down knowing that it was just Mac. So long as she knew who it was, it was okay.

“Oh, having you here is going to be so fun,” Mac mused happily, walking around to look up at her, chin resting on her chest. “It’s a permanent sleepover! Or perhaps this is what it’s like to be married.” She grabbed Heather’s hand and ran her finger over the golden and red ring she wore. Heather forced herself to not jolt her hand away. Though she was more than happy to be in a relationship with Mac and the others, the thought of marriage still scared her a lot. It was so much commitment, and while she was sure she just wasn’t used to settling down for relationships she planned on staying in, the idea of her wedding day happening any time soon was terrifying, as much as she loved her partners.

“Damn, slow down, you’ve been dating for maybe a month,” Duke said.

“I’d say two months, also we’ve been engaged for eight or so years, so it’s about time we moved in together,” Mac chided, holding up Heather’s ringed finger. Heather rolled her eyes fondly.

“I don’t think a couple of eight year olds can get engaged officially.” She glanced at her finger and began to slide her ring up and down. “Though, that gets me thinking, say if all four of us wanted to get married one day… what would we do?”

Maybe this is why Heather didn’t think about marriage that much. Her options were incredibly complicated, and by the looks of her girlfriends’ faces, they thought the same. Duke and Mac exchanged a grimace, with Duke shrugging helplessly and Mac saying,

“We’d figure it out!” she declared. “Marriage is a social construct anyway. We don’t need a real one that abides by the law!”

Heather was about to agree, but Duke arched a brow at her doubtfully.

“Why do you think LGBT activists are working their asses off to get marriage equality? It’s more than the sentiment of marriage, it’s the legal shit that comes with it. If we want to have rights to see one another in hospital, or if we want each others’ consent to overrule our families, we’d need something more than a civil partnership.” She played with the empty glass sitting on the table next to her. “Yes, we  _ could _ have a fake marriage for all four of us, but we’d need a real one too.”

“But then who would marry who?” Heather asked, sitting down on a stool opposite Duke. She shrugged.

“Doesn’t matter. We just need one of us to have the same rights as any other married couple, but even then, we’re not a heterosexual marriage, so it’s not even something we can do  _ anyway. _ ”

“But if gay marriage becomes legal in the next few years, it’s something worth discussing, right?” Heather said. “Maybe I should marry Mac, since we’re already engaged. Would you or Veronica get offended?”

“No, I wouldn’t-”

“You’re both missing the  _ biggest _ issue here!” Mac exclaimed, banging her fists on the table as she sat down next to Heather. “No matter what we do, there’s the issue with our names.”

“What do you mean?” asked Heather.

“So, one of us can marry Veronica, and either we’d take on their last name or it would be the other way around, but for whoever is left, there’s going to be two Heathers with the same last name. How do you even  _ begin _ to introduce yourself to new people?” She dragged her fingers through her hair, as if this were the most stressful concept to ever be thought up. “Hello, I’m Heather McNamara, and this is my wife, Heather McNamara.”

Duke snorted in amusement. “I don’t think that’s our biggest issue, Emmy-”

“No, no,” Heather cut in, nodding at Mac. “She has a point.”

“You don’t  _ have _ to change your last name, it’s just a common tradition. Whichever Heathers are left over can just keep their old names.”

Suddenly, her previous thought about marriage was thrown out the window in favour of a new idea. “I call dibs on Veronica then.”

“What? Why?” Duke questioned.

“You kidding? I’m not keeping my family name.”

“But  _ I _ don’t want to keep my family name!” She frowned at her. “I’ll just propose to her first.”

“I’ve been dating Veronica for longer than you. You won’t.”

“Yeah, by a  _ couple of months. _ ” She turned to Mac. “Heather, quick, propose to Heather so she can’t propose to Veronica.”

“I already did,” she said, gesturing to her ring again. Duke grinned triumphantly.

“Ha!”

“That doesn’t count! We were children!”

“Okay, then maybe  _ I’ll _ propose to Veronica,” Mac said cheekily. They both snapped towards her in dismay.

“Why? You don’t care about losing your family name!” Duke protested.

“I know, that’s why it would be funny.” She giggled to herself. “But in all seriousness, when it comes to marriage, I can always ask Martha’s mom how exactly she did it.”

“Martha’s mom?” Duke asked.

“She has a wife. I figured she’d be okay with me telling you both, since you’ll probably meet her anyway.”

“I already have,” Heather interjected. “You didn’t tell me she was the same Mrs Dunnstock as our old teacher.”

Mac shrank into her shoulders. “I was going to! At least, I might have? I wasn’t sure how to really break that news to you.” She nervously laughed. “But now I don’t have to! You met her? What was it like?”

“It was like a big slap in the face.”

“Yeah, same here.”

“That does remind me that I need to speak to her again though.” Ever since she had offered her therapy through her wife, who she had yet to meet, Heather had wanted to say yes, but whenever she came close to getting up and going to ask Martha to send a message to her mother, she stopped herself. She had only just started opening up to her closest friends, how could she possibly open up to a complete stranger? Would she freeze up immediately? Would it even  _ help? _ Duke seemed better every week after each therapy session - apparently she was currently on her longest streak without purging, so it was clearly doing something. Heather had said she wanted to get better and to improve herself, and she truly did want that for herself, and for everyone else around her. But actually putting in the work into deconstruct her trauma sounded like so much work that it sounded overwhelming.

“About what?” Mac asked. Heather shook her head.

“Nothing important.”  _ See. Opening up is still so difficult! What if I sit there in silence for an hour? _ “Will the mac ‘n cheese be ready?”

“Not sure! Just check,” Mac instructed. Heather did so, and saw a crispy brown colour forming on top of the cheese.

“Almost. A few more minutes, maybe.”

“Good, I’m so hungry,” Mac said with a relieved sigh. “Ooh, what should we make for dessert? Milkshakes?”

“What do you have to put in the milkshakes?”

“Cookies, chocolate bars, the whole lot.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Mac giggled, her feet kicking under the table, hitting it in the process. “This is so much more fun than making dinner alone! I’m so glad you’ve moved in with me.” She looked across to Duke pleadingly. “Do you  _ have _ to go home tomorrow?”

“Mhmm. I have a pet to feed.”

“Anyone can feed Bear!”

“I mean Bubblez. He can only go a few days at a time without food.”

“Just get your brother to do it?” Heather suggested. She was in the same boat as Mac; she didn’t want Duke to go.

“I do not want to hand Bubblez over to him. He would forget to feed him regularly. Also, he’s  _ mine. _ ”

“Hmmm,” Mac hummed as she hopped off her stool to grab some plates. “Easy solution. Just bring him here!”

She was definitely only half-joking, but Duke coiled up with discomfort anyway.

“I can’t,” she muttered. “I have to go home.”

Heather wanted to scoff, but she decided against causing any sort of tension around the table when they were about to eat. Plates were placed in front of them, as well as cutlery, and right after, Mac went over to grab the food out of the oven. She placed it in the middle of the table, the cheese sizzling and bubbling and making Heather’s stomach growl. She’d missed eating  _ real _ food while living at Duke’s, and though she liked to cook, she rarely got the proper motivation when she was on her own at her house. Mac dipped a big spoon into the macaroni, cheese sticking to it on its way up. Melted cheese was one of Heather’s favourite savoury things, not even for the flavour, but because it looked so appetising. Mac generously filled her plate, then handed the spoon to Heather, who did the same. Duke hesitantly took the spoon from her, only adding about half the portion as the other two. That did concern her, but she hadn’t exactly been in the best mood today, so consuming a lot of calories probably wasn’t something she wanted to indulge in right now. She didn’t question her, and instead tried her best to bring conversation to the table.

"So, how are we all feeling about the new lunch table layout?"

"At school? I love it!" Mac chirped. "It feels so much more lively, and I feel less bad about leaving Betty Martha and JD across the cafeteria. I just got used to sitting with them, I would have hated to suddenly abandon them again just because I got my old friends back." She stabbed her fork into her food a few times sheepishly. "Honestly, ever since I started hanging out with them I felt awful for how we treated them. They're just so nice!”

“Well, that’s good. No objections to it? Not that I’d change it back, I think it’s too late for that.”

Both of them shook their heads.

“Good, so the only people throwing hissy fits about it are jealous wannabes. Typical.” She scoffed to herself as she took a bite of her food. “Holy shit, paprika was such a good idea.”

“ _ Right? _ ” Mac agreed eagerly, a bit of cheese sauce dripping from the corner of her mouth.

“Honey,  _ please _ swallow before talking, or it’ll get everywhere,” she told her. Mac grabbed a napkin from the pile that sat in the middle of the table and wiped her face. “Thank you.”

She looked back across to Duke, and saw that though she was eating, she was doing so very hesitantly. So she tried again to start more conversation, about school, about home, about what plans they could make for the weekend with her schedule being free of parties, but Duke rarely spoke up. She seemed incredibly focused on her plate, and more concerningly, is that when she did finish her food, she ended up going for seconds. Since she had a small portion, it would have been a good thing, except the second plate was consumed in half the time, and when she was done, she still seemed incredibly distressed.

“I’ll just rinse all these out!” Mac said cheerfully, seemingly not noticing Duke’s turmoil, or if she did, she didn’t want to make it worse by asking her about it. She just took the plates away and tossed them in the sink, where she rinsed them out with water. “Heather, can you put them in the dishwasher for me when they’ve been rinsed?”

Heather agreed, but her attention was still on Duke, who had a conflicted expression. Then, moments later, she got up and said,

“I’ll be back to help in a sec.”

She really wasn’t as subtle as she thought she was. She didn’t bother debating on what to do, Heather just dropped the plate she was holding in the dishwasher and ran after her, calling,

“I’ll be back too.”

She felt bad for leaving the dishes to Mac, but helping Duke was the bigger issue here. She darted after Duke, dashing up the stairs and caught her just a few steps away from the bathroom. And by ‘caught her’, she means she leaped onto her and knocked her to the ground, with Heather pinning her down on the hallway carpet. Duke stared up at her with both surprise and irritation.

“Heather! What the hell?”

“I know you don’t feel great right now, but I’m not letting you do it,” she huffed stubbornly. Duke frowned.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You most certainly do. You’re on a streak - I’m not letting you break it this soon.”

Duke shot her a sour look. “Well you pinning me to the ground isn’t exactly making me want to not do it.”

“Okay then.” Heather shifted herself so that she was straddling her by the hips, making it so she couldn’t escape, and crossed her arms. “Let’s talk then.”

“What?”

“I will sit here and talk to you until your need to purge has passed.”

“You can’t just sit on me until then.”

“I can and I will. So let’s talk.”

“About  _ what? _ ”

“Literally anything! How was your day?”

Duke deadpanned at her, and Heather expected her to just refuse to answer her until she got up, but surprisingly, she gave in and went along with it.

“It was okay.”

“Anything eventful happen?”

“Not really.”

“Anyone be a dick to you? I know that’s common these days.”

“Surprisingly no. That seems to have died down lately,” she said. “Either people have ran out of transphobic insults, or they realised that throwing those at me earns them some sort of humiliation in front of the whole school.”

“See, people are terrified of you,” Heather praised with a grin. “You’re just such a badass.” She affectionately cupped her chin, which earned a sheepish grin from Duke. Her cheeks grew a little darker, which was adorable. She hadn’t seen much change in her face over the last couple of days, so it was very welcome.

But then it faded again, as if something was weighing her down, stopping her from being happy about anything for more than a few seconds at a time. She desperately wanted to know what it was, but she knew better than to press on.

“So what else do you want to talk about?” Heather asked. “Throw anything at me. I’m all ears.”

Duke blinked it at her, searching her gaze for a moment, her gaze questioning.

“My dad hit me.”

Heather paused, sure that her hearing was getting as fucked as Mac’s.

“What did you say?”

“My dad hit me,” she repeated, her tone dreadfully dry. Far too dry. “It’s why I’m here.”

“What?” Heather had heard it right, but she didn’t want to believe that she did. Granted, she knew something odd was going on when something so bad had happened between her and her parents that she had to spend several days away from home, and the bruise that had formed on her cheek on the night she had arrived here birthed millions of questions and concerns in her head, none of which she felt like she could ask because she assumed she was overthinking things. “He  _ what? _ ”

“I’m sorry.” Duke averted her gaze shamefully. “I didn’t know how to tell you. I didn’t  _ want _ to tell you. I thought… I thought I’d feel better by now.” She seemed to shrink underneath her. “But I don’t. I’m dreading going back tomorrow. I thought I’d be over it by now - it was just a one-off thing, I was hoping I could forget about it and move on. But I  _ can’t. _ ”

“No! Don’t go back! Are you crazy?” Heather exclaimed. “Heather, that’s  _ really _ bad. You can’t go back there. Stay here, where it’s safe-”

“But it’s never happened before!” Duke protested. “He’s never swung at me before, I always felt miserable around my family but I never felt in  _ danger. _ It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Okay, okay, just-” Heather took a deep breath. “Tell me what happened. Why did he hit you?”

“I…” Suddenly she fell quiet, and Heather internally groaned, realising she’d have to search for the answers herself.

“You said you had a really bad argument with them,” she began, “what was it about?”

Duke grimaced at her, biting down on her lip as if she were stopping herself from speaking. Heather tried to think what it could possibly be, what could have possibly happened that day to have caused such a strong reaction out of her father. Did she talk back to him? Did she confess something he disapproved of? She couldn’t wrack her brain as to what could have happened that day to cause an argument  _ that bad _ ...

Unless...

Heather hadn’t been as secretive as she thought.

“Did they find out about me?”

Though Duke remained silent, her eyes drooping in a certain miserable way was enough of an answer. She tried to swallow the lump of guilt that had formed in her throat, but it was too thick to get rid of it.

“Oh my God, Heather… I’m  _ so _ sorry, I should have been more careful-”

“It’s not your fault!” Duke exclaimed. “Heather, don’t blame yourself. You  _ were _ careful, you were as careful as you could have been. None of us would have predicted that the fucking neighbours would have ratted us out, we couldn’t have possibly prevented that.” She sighed defeatedly, her head thumping against the carpet. “Besides, don’t give yourself so much credit as to think that was  _ all _ we argued about. I said some things they didn’t like, and when I didn’t shut up, he…” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t know what to do. I feel so… so  _ awful. _ ”

“Heather…”

“I just want to forget it ever happened! I thought if I just removed myself for a bit, everything would go back to normal, but… but it hasn’t.” She buried her face in her hands helplessly. “How can I be around my family again? I don’t know how to react or how to behave or cope or-”

“Move in with us,” Heather said simply, yet seriously. Duke removed her hands to stare at her with an unconvinced look.

“It’s not that simple.”

“Why not?”

“Because unlike you, my parents are  _ not _ going to give me my college funds early if I leave,” she said. “If I abandon them now, that’s it for me. My plans of getting into a good college are down the drain.”

“Is that all?” Heather laughed. “Heather, you don’t need their money! What university are you planning to go to?”

“Duke.”

“Oh, that’s right,” she chuckled. “How could I forget? Anyway, just take a cut from my savings. I have an excess, and I’m not planning on going to a particularly expensive college like my parents had planned for.”

“No! I’m not taking your money, Heather.” She tried to wriggle out from under her, but Heather stubbornly kept her in place. “Please, I just need to make it through, what, six more months? Then I’m free, I’ll have my funds, and I won’t have to look back!” She was smiling reassuringly, but it was faltering, as if the thought of spending half a year more with her family was painful just to think about. Heather gazed at her knowingly, yet with understanding.

“Heather…” Her tone softened. “I know you want to believe that you’re ‘strong’ enough to go through that or whatever, trust me, I  _ know, _ but why bother putting yourself through that, hm? What point are you trying to prove?”

Duke hesitated. “I…”

“Your first reaction to me hurting myself was to get me out of the place that made me feel bad,” she told her. “Now you’re the one in danger, so… let me return the favour.” 

Duke gazed at her wistfully. “I appreciate that sentiment… but you can’t.”

“I can!”

“I won’t let you pay for my college.”

“Heather, college is expensive, but $300K? You’d barely make a dent.”

“But you could use that money for so many things! A house? Starting a business? Anything you want. I don’t want to take that from you just because I can’t handle a few more months with my parents.”

“Hey.” She leaned closer to her, caging her between her arms. “One - I would never start a business, sounds like way too much work. Two - whatever I would  _ like _ to do with that money doesn’t outweigh me wanting to make sure you’re not in danger. If I want to use it on you, then so be it.”

Duke’s eyes flickered back and forth, conflicted.

“Heather, please. I don’t want you to live in fear for the next six months. Let me help you like you did me.”

She leaned up again to give her space, and finally, Duke sighed in defeat.

“I’ll… I’ll consider it,” she said at last. “Only because… I  _ really _ don’t want to go home, Heather.”

“Then don’t.” She leaned down again, only to be closer to her. “Stay with me? And Heather? You deserve to be safe. Don’t let your worries about money or whatever put you in a bad situation, not when I can help you.”

“Okay, I’ll… I’ll figure something out,” Duke said.

“Promise?”

“Okay,” she murmured. “I promise.”

Relieved, Heather went to move off of her to let her free, but just as she started to move away, Duke grabbed her face and pulled her close again, planting a firm kiss on her lips, as if she were trying to say everything she couldn’t bring herself to. By how desperate and pleading it felt, the way she gripped her cheeks and jawline, she could almost hear her say,  _ ‘thank you, thank you for helping me.’ _ Or perhaps Heather just knew how she felt, and so she was projecting. Either way, her hand landed on Duke’s, lightly pressing it closer, until they parted.

“I should go help Mac clean, if she hasn’t finished already,” she sighed. “Will you be okay up here?”

“Mhmm.”

Heather raised an accusatory brow at her, but Duke nodded insistently.

“I promise, I’ll be fine. I’ll go do some homework to distract myself, how about that?”

“Okay. Not the choice I would have gone for, but whatever suits you, nerd.” She slipped off of her at last, and Duke gladly sat up, brushing her fingers through her hair. “I’m going to guess you won’t want dessert?”

Duke looked at her sadly, shaking her head. “I shouldn’t take that risk.”

“That’s okay.” She stood onto her feet, then helped Duke do the same. She was about to leave her be, but a hand grabbing hers held her back.

“Can you tell Emmy for me?” Duke asked weakly. “About… what’s been going on. I know I shouldn’t hide it from her either, but I just don’t want to go through it all again.”

Heather smiled and nodded.

“Of course, doll.”

It slipped out, but this time she didn’t mind it leaving her tongue. Duke smiled at her in a flattered manner, her eyes lowering slightly, and Heather planted a reassuring kiss on her cheek before leaving her to go and do her homework, watching her close Mac’s bedroom door to make sure she wasn’t going to secretly turn back around to the bathroom. She trusted that she would do what was best for her though, so after a few more moments of waiting, she finally turned back to meet Mac downstairs.

* * *

_ Okay, well, that’s all the dishes done, _ Heather thought. She’d be annoyed that she had to put them all in the dishwasher herself, but she’d already figured that something might be up with either Heather or Heather. Probably Duke; perhaps she was struggling with food again, in which case she would go and check up on her soon. But she’d listened out for the past five minutes and hadn’t heard the toilet flush, so either she was overthinking, or Chandler had convinced her to not do anything.

_ I still should check on her, _ she thought, leaving the kitchen to look around the foyer, and was about to make her way upstairs, but before she even stepped outside of the kitchen, she heard her father talking from another room, too muffled for her to understand what he was saying. Curious, since he very rarely spoke on the phone for anything other than essential calls, she quietly moved down the hallway towards the voice, which was coming from the study. A room she never really went in - she preferred to do work in her own room.

She stood right next to the ajar door, hearing his voice more clearly now.

“Tomorrow? Oh, um, no, that’s perfectly fine, I just didn’t- I didn’t expect it to be so soon, is all. No, no, I’m excited! Just, uh, the house might be a bit of a mess-”

Heather craned her head closer to the door, trying to hear the voice on the other end of the phone, but it was far too quiet for her to pick up on what the person was saying. She was pretty sure it was a woman, but she could have already guessed that.

“I’ll clean up as much as I can.” A pause. “Oh, um, Heather?”

Heather stopped breathing, listening in as well as she could.

“Heather… I haven’t told her yet, no. Just- just because, you know, she might not take too well… you know how she is. A big change like this could stress her out.” Heather arched a brow. He was right, meeting a new girlfriend or whatever most certainly  _ would _ be stressful, but what good was it keeping it from her? If she had some time to prepare for it, perhaps it wouldn’t hit her so hard. “I suppose, but say if she doesn’t react well… she might just avoid meeting you instead of preparing for it. She’s unpredictable like that.”

Heather shot a sour look at the room. The amount of faith her dad had in her was astounding.

“It’ll be like a surprise! I’m sure once she meets you she’ll realise it isn’t too bad,” he said with a nervous laugh. “She gets home at around half four, depending on if she goes out with friends or not.” Another pause. “Alright, yes, that’ll be okay. Okay, see you, have a safe journey.”

Realising the phone call was ending, Heather darted back to the kitchen, narrowly escaping her father’s sight. She listened out for his footsteps, hearing him walk back up the stairs, and sighed with relief. Seeing that the coast was clear, she went to find Heather and Heather, only to see Chandler hurrying down the stairs towards her.

“Heather, I need to tell you something,” she said, pulling her into the living room.

“So do I, but you go first,” Heather replied, resting against the couch arm. Chandler’s thumbs were twiddling, a sign that something was stressing her out, and when she started speaking, Heather realised why. She told her what had happened upstairs with Duke, and what Duke had told her. Heather’s heart dropped and she blurted out words before Chandler even finished speaking.

“We need to get her out of there!” she cried. “She’s not safe! Not if her father isn’t afraid to do that.”

“I know, but she’s insisting on staying.”

“Why? She got you to leave! I thought she was  _ very _ insistent on that!”

“She  _ was, _ but she wants to stay with them for financial support,” Chandler explained. “She doesn’t want to leave her college funds with them-”

“So what? She can just have mine.”

“-Which is why I told her she can have mine - what?”

Heather shrugged. “I’m not going to college, I won’t need most of mine. And I imagine I have an excess like you do.”

Chandler blinked at her. “You’re not going to college?”

“Are you kidding me? That sounds  _ so _ stressful. There’s no routine! No cliques, no rules, nothing. I’m not putting myself in that situation, not if I know I’m going to be alone. I’ll go straight into work when I graduate.”

Chandler’s shoulders slumped. “Oh. Well… that solves that problem.” She hummed thoughtfully. “But I think we should go halves.”

“Halves? Heather, you need yours! You’re disconnected from your family and you  _ are _ planning on going to college. I know you have a lot, but if you go out into the world with no more help from them, it’s best to keep as much as you can!”

Chandler huffed dismissively. “Please, I’ll be fine. Besides, going halves on Heather’s college funds will make even less of a dent.”

Heather frowned at her skeptically. “Okay… we’ll figure it out when dad hands over my funds. Either way, Heather can have most of mine, and I’ll keep a bit for myself just in case I need to move away for a job.”

“Perfect! Problem solved, she can leave.” Chandler grinned. “Though she  _ will _ need a place to stay-”

“You want her to stay here, don’t you?”

Chandler nodded wordlessly.

“Me too. I’ll ask dad if he’s cool with it. I imagine he won’t care. Again.” She rolled her eyes. “But  _ speaking _ of him, Heather, I just overheard the  _ weirdest _ phone call.”

“Oh?”

Heather hopped onto the sofa arm, crossing her legs as she balanced on it with little effort. “He was talking to someone - I imagine a girl - who is apparently coming over tomorrow. Or something. I couldn’t gather much, but I gathered enough.”

“ _ Tomorrow? _ ” Heather raised her brows. “Now that’s intriguing. So you’re going to meet your dad’s new girlfriend?”

Heather pulled her tongue out in disgust. “Gross. But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part is that he is purposely not telling me because he thinks I can’t handle it!”

“Really?”

“Yeah, he thinks if he tells me, I’ll avoid coming home to meet her or something. But if he told me, I wouldn’t be so stressed about it!” She groaned in frustration, kicking her heels against the couch. “But at least I eavesdropped, so now I can get a  _ little _ prepared. But I’m not happy about it.”

Chandler chuckled lightly, walking over to her to wrap and arm around her and pull her close. “You’ll be fine, it’ll just take some getting used to. I doubt you’ll even interact with her that much - how often do you see your father, exactly.”

Heather sighed. “Not much.” She leaned into Chandler’s hold and purred when she began leaving kisses down the side of her neck. “Is this you taking my mind off of it.”

“Of course. I can do it as much as you want,” she said impishly, swerving around to kiss her on the lips, leaning forward slightly, keeping her stable on the couch’s arm with her hands pressed firmly on her hips. Heather giggled into the kiss, feeling blissful, only for Chandler to leave her again with a sigh.

“Though, I should check on Heather. She  _ said _ she was doing homework, but I should make sure she’s okay.”

Heather nodded in affirmation. “You should definitely do that. I’ll be up soon too - I’ll just go ask dad if she can stay with us. We should move her in as soon as we can.”

Chandler nodded in agreement, releasing her sides to let her hop off of the couch. They walked up the stairs together, but separated at the top, with Chandler going towards her room while Heather went down the corridor that she didn’t venture down too often. She preferred her and her dad having their own corridors - it left her the space she needed without him invading too often, if at all. It was something she was able to appreciate.

“Dad?” she spoke up, knocking on the door of his room.

“Huh? Hm? Yes, Heather?”

“Can I come in?”

“Yes.”

She stepped inside, sheepishly tapping on the door. He was on his bed, still fully clothed and just sitting on top of the duvet, flicking through a newspaper.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I need to ask another big favour,” she said. “Heather - Heather Duke, I mean - she’s been having a rough time at home as well…”

Her dad deadpanned at her. “Are you… asking to move her in too?”

She nodded eagerly. “Please. I know it’s a huge favour, but there’s still another spare bedroom in my hallway!”  _ Not that she’ll be using it that much. _ “It’ll only be until we graduate. Please, she really needs to get out of her house.”

Her dad stammered, which worried her. When she had asked if Chandler could stay, he hadn’t hesitated all that much, just carelessly said, “Yeah, okay, so long as she cleans up after herself.” She was scared he was going to say no, but then,

“I… think I can allow that, sure,” he said, albeit slowly. “Just so long as…” He shook his head. “She’s the quieter one, isn’t she? It’ll be fine.”

She was curious as to what he was originally going to say, but was too excited by his approval to care.

“Thank you so much!” she chirped. “She’ll really appreciate it.”

She closed the door and hurried back to her room, bursting in and announcing the good news. Duke looked up from where she sat on her bed, next to Chandler, definitely cautious but she was smiling, at least. Chandler looked a lot more excited, bouncing up and down on the bed.

“That’s perfect! See, Heather, you worry too much, everything will be okay.”

Duke rolled her eyes, moving a textbook off of her lap. “Neither of you have to pay for my tuition.”

“Heather, it’s not a big deal! I don’t want to go to college, what am I going to use my tuition for?”

“Well…”

“You’re my girlfriend and I want you to be safe.” She clambered onto the bed and straddled her, purely to look down at her with a pout. It seemed to silence her effectively. “So you’re going to take our money whether you like it or not.”

Duke shifted underneath her, until she sighed defeatedly.

“I… I’ll move my stuff in tomorrow, I guess.”

“Yay!” she cheered victoriously, throwing herself on her. Duke grunted as her back hit the mattress.

“I don’t  _ want _ to have to do this! I just…” She grew quieter. “I really don’t want to go back home.” Hands gripped onto her more tightly, and Heather leaned back up slightly to see her eyes were glassy. Her heart ached with pity; she very rarely saw her in such a vulnerable state, but being trapped in a household where you’re scared your parents may hurt you would definitely do that to you.

_ It most definitely did that to me. _

Heather decided to give her some space she thought she might need, rolling off of her and sitting next to Chandler.

“You don’t have to go back home now,” Chandler told her. “You can be with us, and everything will be fine.”

Duke sat up, looked at both of them wistfully, then threw her arms around them both. They were both surprised, but immediately pulled her in for a tight hug as she whispered to them both,  _ “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” _ Neither one of them said nothing as they consoled her, just glanced at one another knowingly from across Duke’s shoulders and smiled.

They’d hatch a plan tomorrow, but for now, the three of them were content holding one another, keeping each other safe from whatever may be out to get them, whether it be stupid high school drama, ominous family business, or actual abuse, all of it temporarily faded when they were in one another’s arms.

They were safe here, and that’s all they knew.


	2. It's Best If I Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heather Duke brings Veronica with her to help her escape her home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CONTENT WARNINGS: bulimia/ED/body checking mention, child abuse mention, unhealthy family dynamics, gaslighting, manipulation, shutdown

“Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?” Chandler asked as Heather stepped into her car. She closed the door and rolled down her window, giving her a deadpan look.

“You coming with me is the  _ worst _ thing you could possibly do,” she told her. “I think my parents would go insane if they saw you lingering around the house.”

“Whereas me-” Veronica spoke up, hopping into the passenger’s side car, “-they have very little opinion of, so it’s safer if I go.” They reached across and put an arm around Heather. “I promise I’ll keep her safe, you don’t need to worry.

Chandler sighed in reluctant agreement, stepping back from the car. Emmy latched onto Chandler’s arm and gave her a concerned look.

“Please be careful,” she told her.

“I wasn’t planning on  _ not _ being careful,” she pointed out. “But thanks.”

“If you’re not at the house in three hours, I’m coming over to save you,” Chandler said. Heather rolled her eyes at the sentiment, but she appreciated it nonetheless. She didn’t want to reveal that she was overthinking things more than she usually would. What if her parents locked her in her room forever, foreboding her to ever leave?

_ That’s ridiculous, _ she scolded herself.  _ I have a plan… and though it won’t be anywhere near as satisfying as Chandler’s method of moving out, it should work. _

Heather had quite a lot to move out of her room, and so she could only bring one person with her for moral support, or she wouldn’t fit it all in the car. Veronica seemed like the best option; her parents would flip out at the sight of Chandler, and while Emmy would likely be fine, she couldn’t promise that it would go smoothly, so maybe it would get too much for her. Besides, Veronica had helped out one person escape a shitty family, they could handle another.

Unlike Chandler, she wasn’t feeling particularly mischievous or vengeful or even just excited for all of this to be over. No, she just felt  _ sad. _ She didn’t  _ want _ to do this, she didn’t  _ want _ to cut her family off forever, but she couldn’t possibly stay, could she?

It seems Veronica noticed how tense she was, since they reached across and rested a hand on their lap.

“Are you alright?” they asked.

“Mmm,” she grunted, not entirely sure what it meant. Neither did Veronica, who just tilted their head slightly.

“You’re going to be okay,” they reassured her. “We’ll get out just fine.”

“It isn’t that I’m worried about,” she muttered.

“Then what is it?”

“I…”  _ A lot of things. _ It had already been an incredibly big decision to be made so quickly, so she hadn’t had the time to truly process everything. But now that she was driving to her house, it was all hitting her at once. “Nevermind.”

Veronica silently nodded, and didn’t talk the rest of the way. Soon they were on her street, and Heather slowed her car when they neared her house. She parked as quietly as one could park a whole car, trying her best to not make any loud thumps against the curb or loud crackling of gravel under the wheels. She was sure it wasn’t quiet enough though, and she’d just have to deal with that.

“Do you want me to come with you or wait in the car?” Veronica asked. Heather was about to tell them to wait in the car, but the thought of going in alone was nerve wracking.

“Come with me? Please,” she said with a weak voice. Veronica smiled and nodded, and once they stepped out the car, they came over to squeeze her hand. Heather took a deep breath as she walked up the house, gripping onto Veronica’s hand and pressing herself against them as much as she could. Unlocking the door made her heart race, and stepping in the house made her brace for impact. Impact of what, she wasn’t sure, perhaps an immediate berating, maybe another slap in the face, she didn’t know. All she did know is that nothing came.

The house was deathly silent, so each step she took sounded even louder. She wondered, for a second, if her parents weren’t home, and she would have been happy about that, if it weren’t for the fact that she needed to get them off of her back first and foremost. She shakily lifted a hand to the living room door and pushed it forward, and when she hesitantly peered inside, she saw her mother sitting on the couch, glasses sliding down the bridge of her nose as she read some sort of beauty magazine. If she had noticed Heather’s presence, she didn’t drop a hint that she did.

It took a couple of tries, but eventually, she cleared her throat and spoke up.

“Mom,” she said. Her mother didn’t look up. She just turned the page and replied with a very dry,

“Hello, Heather.”

She wished she could understand what exactly was going through her head. It hadn’t been her who had hit her, but she had done jackshit about it. She highly doubted she cared, but she wished she could read her mind to make sure of that.

“Where’s dad?”

“Still at work,” she replied simply, turning a page. “He’ll be back at six, maybe. Why?”

“I was just wondering.”

“And where have you been?”

Heather swallowed dryly.

“Away.”  _ Are you surprised by that? _

“Your father isn’t pleased. You didn’t even tell us where you were going,” she said with little emotion in her tone. It still made Heather’s stomach sink, and her grip around Veronica’s hand tightened.

“I’m not staying,” she forced out, keeping her voice as stable as she could. “I came to get my things. Don’t make dinner for me.”

That made her mother look up. Her gaze snapped towards Heather, confused.

“I’m sorry?”

“I’m leaving,” she reiterated, keeping her head down. “I’ll… get out of your hair.”

“Leaving?” Her mother squinted. “For how long?”

“Forever, I guess.” She shrugged.

“You’re  _ leaving _ leaving?” Her mother shook her head. “You can’t just come home after three days and drop something like that on us.”

“Well, I just did. Sorry.” This did not feel like winning, not like Chandler had described escaping her parents. She felt completely and utterly pathetic, there wasn’t an ounce of fighter in her like there usually was. “I was going to leave anyway, I’m just doing it early. There’s no difference. So, bye.” She leaned back out the living room and tugged on Veronica’s hand. “Come on, V, let’s go.”

“Heather, Heather, stop.”

She did stop, turning around to see her mother coming after her.

“I know you’re upset about what happened, but that can’t be a good enough reason to  _ leave, _ ” her mother said, almost mockingly, as if she was making the dumbest decision imaginable. “You don’t have any money and we have not given you your college funds, and don’t even  _ think _ we’re going to hand them over to you after abandoning us.”

“I know. I don’t care. I have a place to stay, I have my own plans on how to pay for college. I don’t need you anymore.” She turned back around. “And I most certainly don’t want to be around you anymore. So… goodbye, like I said.”

Her mother seemed aghast, but she surprisingly didn’t argue anymore, like Heather thought she might. She thought she’d have to pack her things whilst listening to the sound of her mother screeching in her ear about how much of an idiot she was being, but instead her mother just gave her a disdainful look, as well as Veronica, stomped her foot and muttered,

“You’re hopeless. When you’re jobless and starving on the streets, do not come knocking on our door. If you don’t want to be our daughter we won’t treat you like one.”

She marched back into the living room, shaking her head with disapproval. Heather just scoffed, “Fine by me,” before walking back up the stairs. Though that interaction had sucked to sit through, it had given her the outcome she wanted, that being her parents disowning her. She didn’t want them to chase her down in school, so it was better this way.

“Well, that went well,” Veronica commented, “I think.”

“Yeah, it did,” Heather murmured, stepping into her room. She looked around at her stuff and groaned, pulling her fingers through her hair. “God, I have so much stuff.”

“It’s okay! We’ll get it all out before your dad gets home.” Veronica rested their hands on her shoulders. “We’ll be fine.”

Heather nodded, knowing that she should be more optimistic about this. After all, leaving her parents’ house to go to college was the main thing she had been looking forward to this year. Now that she had the ability to do it early, she should be feeling a lot better about this, but she couldn’t. She thought the feeling might fade when she cleared her bookshelves of all the books she may want to keep, grabbed her favourite pillows and blankets, her posters and of course emptied her closet of all of her clothes, but it didn’t. In fact, it only got worse.

“Was Heather happy?” she spoke up after a long while of silence. “When she left her parents’ house, was she happy?”

Veronica looked up from their part of the room, where they were folding all of Heather’s clothes into the tightest, smallest shapes they could manage.

“I mean… she was relieved, and she  _ was _ happy to escape.” Their eyes narrowed with thought. “But it was still difficult. She definitely found it hard to let go of her family, even if her family is awful, because it was like letting go of the chance to have any sort of family at all.”

That calmed Heather a lot. She didn’t feel better, but she didn’t feel alone or irrational like she thought she was being.

“Okay,” she replied.

“I know it’s hard, Heather,” Veronica said calmly. “I mean, I don’t know  _ how _ hard. I’ll admit it, I don’t know what it’s like to have to make this type of decision-”

“No need to brag,” Heather grunted sarcastically.

“-But I can tell it’s difficult, and… you’re both very strong for being able to do it.”

Heather was turned away from them, so they couldn’t see the frown that adorned her face.

“So it’s okay that I feel like I’m going to cry at any moment?”

She heard footsteps grow closer to her, and arms wrapped around her abdomen and lips softly pressed against the back of her head. It was almost enough to make the tears start flowing out, but she sucked them in, and simply held those arms close.

“Whatever you’re feeling is okay, because none of this is your fault,” Veronica whispered. “You could be angry, sad, happy, even feel nothing. There’s no right way to deal with this, all that matters is that you’re in a safe place, that you’re okay.”

Some tears did escape after she heard that. She swallowed back down the urge to cry, just squeezed those couple of tears out her eyes and sniffled. She shook herself off quickly and escaped Veronica’s grip.

“Yeah, you’re right,” she said, her voice quivering. “It’s not my fault. It’s their fault for being so damn  _ difficult- ow! _ ” She kicked the drawers which achieved nothing but crushing her toes. “I just wanted them to listen to me for  _ once. _ Why couldn’t they have handled a daughter who wanted to make her own goddamn choices? Instead they resorted to physical violence to silence me!” Her voice was growing louder than she intended it to, but the amount of frustration she felt was unbearable. “Am I really that impossible?”

“You’re not impossible, they just don’t like that they can’t push you around.”

“They can’t, and it’s-” she was cut off by the sound of her door opening. She turned to look at whoever was entering with a dangerous glare, expecting it to be her mother listening in, but instead, she was met with her brother, completely oblivious.

“Oh thank  _ God _ you’re back,” he sighed with relief. “Bear has been acting  _ so _ weird since you disappeared! Now you can walk him again. Where’d you even run off to?”

Heather was about to ask him if he was really that dumb, but she stopped herself upon realising that he probably didn’t know what had actually occurred a few days prior.

“Stuff happened,” she replied, completely disregarding his first statement, because even thinking about it was making her chest ache with remorse. Hunter was about to question her further, but the things scattered around her floor, put into neat piles and bags made him pause.

“What’s going on?”

Heather wasn’t entirely sure where to begin, or if she should just skip to the chase. It’s not like Hunter cared for her by any means anyway. Hell, he’d be  _ glad _ to see her go - he’d get to move into her room, which was bigger than his.

“I’m leaving,” she said simply, going back to gathering her things. Veronica returned to where they had been sitting, going back to organising everything. Hunter just stepped over it all to walk over to her.

“Leaving? For how long? Why are you bringing so much stuff?” he asked obliviously. “Is this a big field trip or something?”

“No. I’m leaving,” she repeated. “And I’m not coming back.”

Hunter stared at her, dumbfoundedly. Then he laughed.

“Oh, geez, mom said you were being hysterical lately, but now you’re trying to  _ leave? _ ” He laughed more. “Where even to? You can’t buy a house!”

Heather scowled at him. “I have a place to go. Quit assuming I’m stupid.”

“But leaving is stupid!” he chortled. “You’ll be back in a few days. You always get moody after you have some argument with mom or dad.” He went to hop back over the scattered belongings, but Heather clenched her fists and blurted out,

“I’m leaving, and I’m never coming back!” She marched forward, which made him pause to turn back to her. “I can’t live in this house anymore. You all treat me like garbage, and I’m so sick of it!”

Hunter seemed to pick up some sort of rage in her tone that she usually didn’t have, which caught his attention. His grin faded.

“Okay, yeah, I guess it was a bad argument? What the hell got you so mad?”

“Dad… dad and I got into a bad fight,” she grumbled. “I essentially told him to stop treating me like shit, and instead of listening to me, he hit me,” she spat the last few words out bitterly, like it stung her tongue to say. “I can’t live in a house like that. So I’m leaving to live with Heather. Her house is big enough.”

Hunter’s eyes flickered over her, and out of his mouth came the worst possible response,

“So?”

“ _ So? _ ” she echoed in dismay. “Dad  _ assaulted _ me, and you’re saying  _ so? _ ”

He shrugged. “You hit me all the time. Why are you making a big deal out of it when it happens to you?”

Heather saw Veronica look up from their task with a concerned look on their face. She grimaced; Hunter couldn’t have made it sound more bad than that.

“That’s  _ different, _ ” she hissed. “I hit you in  _ self-defence, _ because you’ve never understood the meaning of ‘no’. I ask you to not tackle me, sit on me or wrestle me and you don’t listen, so I do the only thing that  _ will _ get you off!” Veronica seemed to relax at the sound of that, but even though Heather had always felt so justified in fending off Hunter and Hayden, in looking at the completely relaxed and apathetic look on Hunter’s face at the sound of physical violence, she suddenly felt an incredibly guilty pit form in her stomach.

“But I still hit you,” she murmured, her fists unclenching themselves. “So I’m sorry.”

Hunter blinked, taking a moment to process what she had just said.

“What?”

“You shouldn’t have cornered me in a position where I felt like I had to hit you to escape,” she said, taking a deep breath. “But you’re still my little brother, and I wish I could have thought of another way to de-escalate those situations. Really it should have been mom or dad, but of course they let you do whatever you wanted, so I’m sorry that I went to those measures.” She folded her arms and wrapped one leg around the other gingerly. “I wish it could have been different, I just didn’t know what else to do, and I still don’t know what I should have done, really.”

Hunter seemed incredibly confused about her apology, like he hadn’t ever expected to earn an apology of any sort.

“I was only ever playing,” he murmured. “You hitting me didn’t bother me, really.”

“Yes it did! You always cried to mom after them, every single time.”

“Well, yeah, but-”

“I wish I could have been a better sister to you, but you were always so caught up in sucking up to Hayden and his bullshit that you made it impossible!  _ He _ made it impossible!” she growled. “I don’t like hitting you, I don’t like pushing you and I don’t like yelling at you, but you’ve absorbed so much entitlement from dad and Hayden that I feel like I don’t have a choice!”

Hunter was shifting uncomfortably now. “You didn’t? I always assumed you just liked ticking me off.”

“No! I… I  _ want _ to be a good sister, Hunter, I promise I do, but I can’t. I can’t respect you if you or anyone in this household can’t respect me. I’m not letting myself be used like that - I’m smarter than that.” She brushed some stray black strands out of her face and sighed breathlessly. “I hate my family, Hunter. I hate mom, I hate dad, I hate Hayden. But I can’t bring myself to hate you, no matter how shitty you can be to me, because you’re still only fourteen, you’re still young and stupid and hormonal and you’re not being raised right. Even though I know it’s the exact same excuse I could give to Hayden, I still can’t blame you while you’re still this young.” She stepped closer to him, not to confront him, not to intimidate him, but in a weirdly affectionate way, purely to look up at him pleadingly so she could say,

“I know you’re not going to listen to me, but I’ll tell you anyway, just in case one day, you realise that you’re becoming the type of guys I avoid at parties, the type of guys who have assaulted me and the type of guys I’m scared of-”

“You? Scared of guys?” His voice wasn’t mocking this time. He actually had enough sense to realise what she was saying was incredibly sensitive, even if he had interrupted. He was just genuinely confused. “You’re not scared of anyone. You’re  _ impossible _ to scare.”

“Hm, that’s nice of you to say, but you’re wrong,” she murmured, the phrase ‘that’s nice of you to say’ feeling strange leaving her mouth to be given to Hunter. “I’m scared of a lot of people, most of them are guys. If Hayden weren’t my brother, I’d be scared of him too, and as soon as you get older, it would be the same story for you too.” She stepped away from him. “So if one day you realise that you’re becoming that type of person, and you realise that all it leads to is shitty morals, dysfunctional relationships and literally no true friends who’ll want to stick around you for longer than a few months, then just know, it’s not to late for you, you know. You don’t have to suck up to Hayden and dad so much, you can be a nice person - what a concept!” She looked away wistfully. “But I also know if you don’t shape up in a certain way, you may get treated the same way I do by this family, which I guess is another reason I can’t blame you.”

Hunter tilted his head. “You’re not  _ actually _ leaving, right?” His voice was oddly quiet. “I… I know I usually tease and… but it’s… I was only ever joking!”

Heather’s frown deepened. “Jokes shouldn’t hurt. They should make me laugh.”

“But I-” He was clearly  _ trying _ to be sentimental, which Heather appreciated, but his poor little pubescent fourteen-year-old-boy brain was incapable of letting true emotions show. “You can’t just leave because of some family brawls!  _ Everyone _ has family brawls! You’re just being way too sensitive to everything! Stop acting so entitled to being treated like a… like a spoiled little…”

“Entitled to being treated decently?” she finished calmly. “Entitled to not fear being hit whenever I call my family out on their bullshit?” She huffed, bemused. “Should I be apologising?”

A hundred emotions passed through Hunter’s deep brown eyes at once, making them glassy, until they narrowed with fury. His fists clenched and his stance changed, and she immediately knew what was coming. She hadn’t seen him do this since he was about ten, when she had won a race down a grocery store and grabbed the last snack they had both wanted, she couldn’t even remember what exactly it had been, something with chocolate in them. It had been enough for him to throw a tantrum and begin hitting her right there in the store, not stopping until she dropped the snack, and it had been one of the few times her parents had stepped in to break them apart, probably because of the staring eyes. She had ended up being forced to hand him the snack just to calm him down, and she’d been depressed for the rest of the day because of how unfair it was.

Now he was doing it again, and it was harder to even be mad because the thing he was throwing a tantrum over was her  _ leaving. _

He lunged forward and tackled her to the ground, and she yelled as he gripped onto her clothes in anger. She hit him back, kicking her feet anywhere she could to try and get him off, but he was bigger and stronger than her, despite being so much younger.

“Get off of me!” she barked, flinching each time a hand swung near her face.

“This isn’t fair! You always make everything about you! Why can’t you ever not make a big deal about something? It makes us so  _ miserable! _ ”

The words hurt a lot more than the way his hands tried to pin her to the ground, but suddenly, his weight was lifted off of her. She opened her eyes to see Veronica pulling him backwards, struggling to keep a hold of him when his limbs were thrashing about like a rabid animal.

“Get off of me!” He protested.

“Stop hurting her!” Veronica snarled. “You’re twice her size, and she’s trying to be nice to you!”

“She’s being a BITCH!” he hollered, an arm swinging around and a fist landing right between her eyebrows. Veronica yelped in pain and ended up releasing him so they could press a hand against where they’d been hurt. Hunter seemed to realise what he had done at last and froze, unsure what his next move should be. Heather’s first instinct was to pummel him and force an apology out of him, but instead, she stood up and walked over to Veronica, a little shaky on her feet. She reached up to remove Veronica’s hand to check it wasn’t bleeding, and managed to catch their eyes in doing so. No blood was seeping out of any wound, they probably would just have an aching forehead for a little while. She cupped their face softly, biting her lip as she tried to think what to do next. Veronica just mouthed an “I’m okay,” but Heather didn’t care. They could have been hurt badly.

Taking a deep breath, Heather didn’t turn to look at Hunter again. She’d already used so much energy on him, she had no idea what else she could possibly do to rectify their relationship in just a few minutes.

“Leave us,” she murmured, somewhat dangerously. “If dad or mom ever lays a hand on you, you can come and find me, but other than that unlikely situation, I want you to leave me alone.”

There was a long silence from him.

“They won’t lay a hand on me,” he murmured.

“I know,” she replied. “It’s just in case.” She swallowed. “Now go.” Her voice staying so calm even scared her a little - usually she couldn’t control her temper around her brother. But she was done fighting with him, she didn’t want this argument to continue. She wanted him to leave, and for this to end.

“But Heather-”

“Go,” she said again, this time a little louder. He seemed to finally get the hint, and she heard his footsteps leave the room. Once she couldn’t hear him anymore, Heather turned her full attention back to Veronica.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for you to get hurt-”

“It’s fine! It’s fine, I got myself involved,” Veronica chuckled as if their face wasn’t throbbing in pain.

“You didn’t need to,” Heather murmured, but she wasn’t sure how much she believed it.

“I couldn’t stand there and watch you get hurt,” they said. “Are you alright?”

“He didn’t really hurt me,” she said, “I mean, he did, but I’ll be okay. It’s nothing too bad.” She wasn’t sure where exactly he had landed hits. She could just feel a vague aching all over her body that she knew would fade quickly. When Veronica gave her a doubtful look, she pressed a kiss on their jawline and said, “Really, I’ll be okay.”

They nodded slowly, rubbing a thumb between their eyebrows. “That’s good to hear.”

“Do you need an ice pack?”

“Oh, God, not again!” Veronica laughed. “Please, not another night here with me suffering from a concussion.”

Heather actually found herself chuckling along with them. “Sorry this seems to happen every time.”

“It’s cool. This doesn’t feel as bad, surprisingly. I don’t think he was trying too hard to hurt me.”

“Okay, good. Still, do you need something frozen?”

“No, no, I’ll last until we get to Mara’s.”

“Alright.” She reached up to kiss them in between the eyes tenderly. Veronica giggled.

“That made it feel a lot better.”

“Good. Now let’s speed up so I can get you some actual ice.”

“Yes please.”

Strangely, the rest of Heather’s time spent packing her things didn’t have such a heavy weight hanging onto her chest. She felt like she had said everything she had wanted to say for years, and even though she felt like none of it had gotten through to anyone, she knew there was little else she could do. She had tried to be reasonable, and it was rejected, so now she was removing herself from this family for good.

Still, the sadness ended up returning when she got round to the last thing she needed to do, which was draining Bubblez’ cage and placing him in his temporary container. His tank was massive; they had no choice but to drain all the water out.

“At least I can take you with me,” she murmured, watching Bubblez swim around in his smaller container. She hadn’t wanted to think about this part, because embarrassingly, it was by far the hardest thing about this. While Chandler had the difficult decision of letting go of her cousins, the few family members she actually cared about, all Heather had to cry over was…

“Are you okay?” Veronica asked, having returned from taking the last of Heather’s things to her car. They had come back up to assist her in carrying the tank down, since neither of them would be able to do it on their own. Heather looked up from the container, trying to swallow down the sadness coming up in her throat.

“Yeah.”

Veronica looked at her doubtfully. “You can take him with you,” they said, pointing at Bubblez. When they saw Heather’s expression remain forlorn, they added, “But…”

“It’s not fair,” Heather growled, placing the container down. “ _ I’m _ the one who had asked for Bear to begin with. I’m the one who takes care of him! He should be allowed to come with me!” She stomped her foot on the ground in frustration. Veronica placed a had on her shoulder.

“If all of that’s true, why not just take him with you?”

“Because he’s still the family dog and he belongs to them on the papers,” she snarled. “So no, unless they want to give me the satisfaction of handing him over, I can’t take him with me.”

“Maybe they’ll-”

“They won’t,” she shot them down before they could give her any false hope. “They hate me. They’re not going to give me a lick of sympathy, nevermind the family dog.”

Veronica opened their mouth again, about to try and comfort her more, but the sound of sniffing in the corridor stopped them. They turned around to see a large figure lingering outside the doorway, curiously sniffing the ground as if he knew something strange was happening, and he had come to investigate. Veronica quickly stumbled backwards, keeping their distance. Heather just froze, seeing her dog walk into her room with a swaying tail and a large smile. He happily trotted over to her, bouncing a little, she guessed he was excited to see her after several days of being absent, which only broke her heart. She’d probably never see that happy, innocent face looking up at her again, the only thing excited to see her come home.

“Hey, buddy,” she slowly said, her throat beginning to ache. “Sorry I left without a goodbye.” She kneeled down, becoming eye-level with the huge dog. Bear gave her several big licks on her nose, which she would usually wipe off immediately and run to wash her face - she had seen what he shoved his nose into on his walks, there was no way dog licks were hygienic - but this time she just let him, trying to still her quivering lip as he did so.

“Yeah, I missed you too,” she whimpered, blinking tears out of her eyes. Bear seemed to pick up on her mood change and tilted his head, pawing at her leg. The few concerned whines that escaped him was enough for her to burst into tears, and she wrapped her arms around him, his fur soaking up her tears.

“I’m so, so sorry, Bear,” she cried. “I have to go. I don’t want to leave you, but I need to go.”

Bear’s tail stopped wagging and he sat down, letting out confused whines. She tightened her grip around him.

“You’re a good boy, you know that?” she sobbed, wiping her face to look at him. He cupped his fluffy cheeks and gave him the strokes he probably wanted, but it didn’t get rid of his big, sad eyes. “You’re such a good boy.”

The praise was ruined by her cracking voice. He didn’t stand up and swirl around like he usually would, or even raise his head. He pawed at her leg again, as if desperate to know what was wrong.

“I’m sorry, Bear,” she said again. “I really hope I can see you again, but…” The more she thought about it, she couldn’t think of a possibility of ever seeing him again. Maybe she’d catch Hunter on a walk with him in the park, but after their interaction today, no way would she go near him, and no way Hunter would take enough pity on her to let her see Bear up close. Unless they gave him up for adoption one day and she would somehow know to go and look for him, there was no way she could ever see him again. The thought made her break down on the spot, and all she could do is clutch onto a very confused and concerned Bear. She felt ridiculous for crying so much over a dog, but he might as well be dying, because there was no way in hell she’d ever see him again.

“Heather?” Veronica spoke up nervously. “I… I’m really sorry, but… it’s going to be six soon. You’re dad could come home any minute.”

“Oh.” She sniffled. “Mhmm. Sorry. I’m fine, I’m-” She broke away from her hug with Bear, but she still gave him a soft pat on the head. “Be a good boy and go downstairs. Please. I need to move this tank.” The fact that she was sending one pet away for the sake of another hurt even more, but she couldn’t move this big tank with Bear stepping around her. “Go on. Food! Go get food.”

That seemed to catch his attention. His ears pricked up and his tail began to wag again, and when Heather pretended to walk towards the door, he hurried out of her room and rushed down the stairs. She could feel the urge to cry return, she felt so awful tricking him so that she could make her escape. She couldn’t imagine what he might think of her after this. He was a dog, she couldn’t explain to him that she wasn’t safe here. All he would know was that she had disappeared, and for some reason, she wasn’t coming back to him. It broke her heart more than anything that her family had ever done to her, and so when Veronica came to hold her, she collapsed in their arms, trembling against their chest. She only let herself stay like that for a few moments, before she shook herself off and walked back over to the tank.

“Okay. I’ll take Bubblez down and come back up to help you with the tank.”

“Are you sure you don’t need a couple more minutes?” Veronica asked. “I mean, I know I just said your dad could be home soon - and he  _ could _ \- but you’re clearly really upset-”

“No, no, you’re right. He could be home any minutes and I do  _ not _ want to face him.” She swallowed thickly, the need to cry being forced down in the meantime. “I am upset, but I know how to keep my emotions in until a more appropriate time.”

“If you’re sure…” Veronica said with uncertainty. Heather just gave a curt nod, picking up Bubblez’ small crate to hurry him down to the car. She didn’t feel like she had the energy for this, not with the thought of Bear’s sad, confused face as he looks at the door right after she closes it for the last time plaguing her thoughts, but she had to keep going. She did not want to face her father, not again.

She rushed out of the house and to her car, placing Bubblez on her car seat before hurrying back into the house, making sure to speed past the door of the living room, not wanting to catch a glance of her mother again. At least she was leaving her alone, which was surprising. She guessed she’d given up on her.

The journey down the stairs with the tank was difficult. It was a tall tank and it was heavy, even with two people carrying it. Heather had offered to be the one to walk backwards, since she knew her house a lot better than Veronica did. She almost tripped a couple of times down the stairs, but eventually they made it to the bottom floor. They didn’t have much room left in the car, though. Heather didn’t realise she had so much stuff. She managed to make some room by piling some bags on top of one another, leaving the tank pressed against the seat, held back from toppling over by some bags on the floor.

“For such a little guy, he needs a really big home,” Veronica commented, closing the door. Heather let out a big breath, her arms exhausted.

“He needs a lot of care.” She turned back to her house. “I’m going to double check I didn’t leave anything.”

“Alright. Need me to come with you?”

“You can stay in the car if you like.”

Heather hurried back up the stairs and entered her room one last time. It was so strange how empty it was, only a couple things like furniture, her bed, an almost empty bookshelf, a desk and a vanity left behind. The window sill was devoid of plants, including the one Veronica had given her for Valentine’s, the surface of her drawers where Bubblez’ tank had been had a big lighter square where the tank used to be. It felt unreal, but she knew that in less than an hour, she’d be at Emmy’s house, settling in.

She checked around her room several times, making sure there was nothing of value left behind. All she found were old notes she didn’t need or want, sweet wrappers she had missed when cleaning up after binging, old out of date makeup and some other junk she didn’t need. She was about to leave, when one final thing caught her eye.

Her mirror.

Her mirror had been something she had looked at every day, and always something she had despised. Her therapist had told her to get rid of it, or at least move it out of her room, because all it did was allow her to pick herself apart every morning. She would body check, she would stare at her figure, she would hate what she saw. Sometimes she remembered to turn the mirror around so she wouldn’t fall into that type of mindset, but that was only recently, and right now, the mirror was facing her.

She didn’t body check this time, but she could see how sad she looked. Makeup had run down her face, so her mascara and eyeliner were smudged. Her hair was a mess, her scrunchie was falling out. She looked awful, but not in the way she usually thought she looked awful. Right now she just felt defeated - is this what her family had done to her?

That mirror had caused her a lot of pain. It felt wrong to leave it standing. She knew she’d never see it again, but just knowing that something that had made her so miserable existing in her old home made her feel some sort of anguish.

_ “I don’t see the point in getting rid of it,” Heather had said to her therapist, staring at her lap. “I’ll end up finding another one. Shouldn’t I just get used to it instead?” _

_ “You make a good point, but my point is that you don’t use every mirror for the same purpose,” she had told her. “That mirror is in your room - it’s the first thing you see when you wake up. You’ve told me about your routine, Heather. Doesn’t that mirror play a big role in it?” _

_ “So could any mirror,” she had argued. _

_ “But it’s not that it’s just a mirror. It’s that that mirror is in your room, it’s in a place where you keep so much of your feelings hidden away. You tell me how you tend to keep your emotions in until you’ve closed your door. There’s a reason why  _ that _ mirror plays the role that it does. It’s not because it’s a mirror, it’s because of where it is.” She leaned forward. “Not to sound like your hippie school counsellor, as you call her, but you harbour a lot of negative energy in that room. Don’t you think you should try and make the place you’re most vulnerable in more safe for you? Your morning shouldn’t consist of hating your reflection, Heather. Don’t you think you should let yourself just prepare for the day instead, like you would like? It would be easier without that mirror.” _

_ Heather shifted uncomfortably at the thought, because it made sense. “I don’t know. I understand what you’re saying, but if it’s not  _ really _ the mirror that’s the problem, then will my issues really go away?” _

_ “No, taking away a mirror wouldn’t do that,” she went on to explain. “This is more about changing the living space you’re in, because clearly, it’s not making you happy. But you can’t remove yourself from it, so I am simply suggesting ways to improve it, even if it’s just little things.” _

Despite having agreed with everything she had said, Heather had kept her mirror around. She was never sure why - maybe she had just become that accustomed to keeping things that hurt her near, just to prove that she could cope with it, because you never know when you  _ couldn’t _ remove yourself from a hard situation, so it  _ had _ to be for the best to prepare for the worst, right?

_ The worst I was preparing for is the rest of my days living with my parents, _ she told herself,  _ and those days are coming to an end. _

She knew she shouldn’t have done it in the first place. She shouldn’t have to harden herself just to cope with living with her family, she shouldn’t have to make herself miserable just to bare living under their roof.

_ You shouldn’t let yourself crack just to prove that you can handle it. _

She was so tired of being the one who had to be broken first. Why did it have to be her? Why not her family?

She couldn’t do much about her family now. But at the very least, she could take out her need for revenge on the mirror. She grabbed one of the books she had left behind - some old hardback book she hadn’t read past the first few pages, it had been so dull - reared it back with her arm, then launched it at the mirror with as much force as she could. The mirror didn’t shatter, but it did crack. It would probably crumble if it was moved, but for now, the pieces stayed in place, acting like nothing had happened.

But that didn’t change the fact that it was broken.

She placed the book back on the shelf and left her room, switching her light off with a couple of switches to make sure the bulb was definitely off, and made her way down the stairs one last time, making sure to close her bedroom door on her way out. She tried her best not to think about Bear on her way out, and just as she reached for the door, she heard her mother speak up.

“Heather.”

She paused, but she didn’t go to her. She just waited for her to finish. When she didn’t say anything else, she sighed in annoyance.

“Yes?”

“Key.”

Oh. She didn’t even think of that.

She took out the key from her pocket and hesitantly walked into the living room. Her mother didn’t look at her as she sauntered to the coffee table to place it down as quietly as she could, as if she was trying to not wake her from a trance. Before going back though, she said,

“Don’t let Bear into my room.”

“Why?”

“He might get hurt.” Bear didn’t know his own weight; he could knock into the mirror and get the shards stuck in his fur and get hurt. Or maybe she was overthinking things in her head.

“Okay,” her mother replied simply. “Bye.”

“...Bye.”

With that, she was leaving. It didn’t feel right leaving on such an awkward note, but before she knew it, she was out the door and walking down to her car. So many thoughts buzzed around her head, but she wasn’t ready to let them out yet.

Veronica was shuffling anxiously in their seat when she returned.

“You okay? You were gone for a while, I thought I might have to follow you in.”

“No, no. I was just double and triple checking. You know how I am.” She rested her hands on the wheel, drumming her fingers over the rough material as her head continued to grow fuzzy with emotions.

“You okay?” Veronica asked.

“No,” she replied dryly. “But I’d rather save it for when we’re at Emmy’s. Let’s get me settled in first, then you can all watch me have a huge crisis over everything. If you’re lucky, I’ll save it for my therapy session this week.”

“If you say so.”

Heather started up the car and began to drive, most of the ride being in silence, that is until Veronica’s attempts to lighten the mood.

“We timed this pretty badly,” they said with a chuckle. “Isn’t Mara meant to be meeting her new, possible step-mother today? Probably still doing it right now?”

Heather shrugged. “Someone would have told her what was happening today, so whoever she’s meeting today shouldn’t be too surprised by some random girl moving into the house. If she is, then it’s not my problem, and also I don’t care.” She bit her lip nervously though, thinking that she might not be able to hold in her emotions for much longer. She was sure that as soon as most of her stuff was moved in the house, she would fall onto the bed and burst into tears. She didn’t want to do that when there was a complete stranger within a few meters radius from her. It seems Veronica picked up on her anxiety.

“Is there anything you want to talk about?” they asked.

“Such as?”

“I know you’re really upset about Bear,” they said. “If you’d like to just… talk about him, you can.”

“I don’t know how much help you’d be, no offense,” she replied. “Have you ever lost a pet before?”

“I’ve lost a couple of hamsters?” They nervously chuckled. “Not the same though. I was upset for maybe a day for each.”

“Not really,” Heather agreed, somewhat amused. Then her mind wandered to Bear again.

“How long did you have him for?”

“About six years,” she said. “Since I was about twelve.”

“That’s a long time. Is he six or did you get him when he was already grown up?”

“No, he is six. We got him when he was a puppy, though, he was still very big even back then,” she chuckled at the memory in a bittersweet way. “I remember when I got him, I showed him to Emmy, and she was  _ thrilled. _ This was back when our relationship… wasn’t the best, as you know.”

Veronica nodded, listening intently.

“We never really functioned as friends without Heather around, but when I introduced Emmy to Bear, we finally had something to talk about.”

“So, you became good friends because of Bear?”

“Pretty much.” She smiled wistfully. “It had been around the time she was going through rough family stuff too. It was around then that her mother up and left.”

“Oh, I see.” Veronica gave her a sympathetic look. “He must have helped so much.”

“He did.” She stopped at a traffic light and let herself wilt a little. “I had only just started walking him again too. I didn’t have the energy for so long - he’s a big dog, he needs big walks. But because I wasn’t eating properly, I could never take him far, so I stopped.” She averted her gaze guiltily. “He loved having walks with me. Lately I actually started getting enough energy to do it more, and now I can’t ever do it again.”

“Oh, Heather…”

“Don’t, don’t give me pity. Not right now.” She started driving again once the light turned green. “I should stop talking about him, I think. I want to get settled in first. Emotional reminiscing later.”

“If you’re sure.”

“I’m very sure,” she said firmly. “Thank you though. For everything.” She shot them a grateful smile, though it was faint. Veronica smiled back warmly.

“It’s no problem.”

“Do you still want an ice pack?”

“Well…” Veronica rubbed the spot that had been hit. “It… would be nice, yes.”

“I’ll ask Heather when we get in the house.”

They didn’t have much further to drive. Soon enough they were outside Emmy’s house, so she parked her car as close to the door as she could and picked up Bubblez, whose container had been sat on her lap the whole drive there. Better get his tank set up first, or at least bring his tank in the house before anything else. She didn’t want to leave him there for too long.

“I’ll bring Bubblez up and then the tank,” she said. “I might as well clean it while it’s empty, too.”

“Sure. I’ll come with you to the door, I can see if Heather or Heather want to help carry the tank instead.” She caressed her arm. “You deserve a break.”

Heather rested her head against the seat, relieved at the thought of not having to carry that tank again. “Thank you.”

They made their way up to the house and rang the doorbell, waiting patiently. It took a little longer than expected, but then again, Emmy  _ was _ supposed to be busy right now, with that new mother in law or whatever it may be. So it was no surprise that it wasn’t Emmy or her father who answered the door, instead it was Chandler. Oddly, she poked her head around nervously, as if she was being incredibly cautious.

“It’s just us,” she reassured, which seemed to make her open the door wider. “Excuse how I look like a total mess. I’m sure you get that this is kind of a lot, so tears were inevitable.”

Chandler didn’t laugh like she usually would. In fact, she seemed incredibly distracted, constantly looking over her shoulder with a worried expression. Heather and Veronica exchanged a confused look.

“You okay, Heather?” Veronica asked.

“Do you mind leaving your stuff in the car for now?” she asked. “Just for a couple of hours? I don’t know. Now is a  _ really _ bad time for a move-in.”

“Is this family thing Heather has going on really that serious?” Heather huffed. “Either way, sure, but I need to get Bubblez’ tank set up now, if that’s okay.”

Chandler grimaced at the axolotl swimming around in the tub. “Shit. Okay, yeah, sure, we can get that done.”

“Heather, is something wrong?” Veronica questioned. “You seem really on edge.”

“Where’s the tank?” Chandler asked, walking right past them. “Heather, go on ahead, I’ll carry the tank with Veronica. I imagine it needs two people, right? Heather, give me your keys, I’ll lock your car for you.”

“Uh, sure. Have fun carrying that thing,” she quipped, tossing her the car keys.

Again, Chandler didn’t seem amused by her sarcasm, but not annoyed, either. Something was clearly bothering her. It worried Heather, but she did what she was told and entered the house anyway. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and she didn’t stop to try and find anything weird happening. She just went straight upstairs. She wondered which room to go into - she could always put Bubblez in Emmy’s room - she was sure she’d love that - but she knew there was nowhere to put the tank, so instead she went into the spare bedroom that she’d end up putting all her things in later and placed Bubblez on the first surface she found. He was currently resting on a rock she liked to put in the container.

“You’ll be back home soon, don’t worry,” she told him, patting his box and leaving again. Figuring Chandler probably wanted her to stay upstairs, she decided to enter Emmy’s room. She expected it to be empty, thinking that Emmy would be busy downstairs with her father and whoever he had brought her to meet, so it surprised her to see that she was sitting on her bed, legs crossed awkwardly with Foxy on her lap. She was swaying back and forth, and didn’t acknowledge her presence.

“Oh. Hi, Heather,” she spoke up, keeping her voice a little quiet to not alarm her. Heather looked over to her, but she didn’t say anything, and just turned away again. Heather frowned.

“Is it going that bad?” she tried to joke. “How about you tell me everything? Was it really a new girlfriend? Or was it something else entirely?” She sat down on the bed next to her, but she kept some distance between them, concerned by how fast she was rocking.

Emmy still didn’t respond, but she did look at her again. Her expression seemed startled, or frightened, or some other scared emotion, she wasn’t sure, but she didn’t look happy. Heather dropped all her attempts to lighten the mood, frowning at her.

“What’s wrong?”

Emmy just tilted her head, her lips pressing together as she stared at her pleadingly.

“You’re not talking,” she stated. “Are you having a shutdown or something?”

She nodded. Heather’s heart dropped. Even though she was being responsive, whereas usually she would probably completely close off, she was definitely not in a good state of mind. She shuffled around to sit directly opposite her.

“Okay… was it the person your father introduced you to? Is that what’s stressing you out?”

She nodded again.

“Is she that bad? Assuming it’s a new girlfriend.”

Emmy had started to nod at the first question, but then quickly began to shake her head, which only confused her further.

“Not a girlfriend?”

Emmy paused for a moment, then nodded her head.

“But… you just said-”

She shook her head again, before she began to grow frustrated, not with Heather, but with the limited communication. She gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, clenching her fists into balls and beginning to hit her temples with them as she, presumably, tried to think of a way to tell her what she meant. But that mystery flew out the window, in favour of stopping her from hurting herself.

“Hey, hey, Emmy, honey, sweetie, look at me-” she said, reaching her arms forward, but not touching her yet. “It’s okay, don’t tell me. I’ll get you a pen or paper-” she then heard grunting and footsteps coming from further down the hallway, and she guessed that Chandler and Veronica had made it upstairs with the tank. “Or I’ll get Heather to translate sign language. Okay?” She slipped her hands between Emmy’s fists and her temples, not actually touching her, but blocking her from hitting herself again. She’d learned to not grab or restrain her after a few times of trying when she’d had a meltdown. All it led to is her becoming more stressed and crying and begging for space. Now though, she just nodded slowly, though she still looked sorrowful, like she wished she could just explain it now. Heather felt sorry for her, but she would figure it out once Chandler returned.

She heard a thump in the spare room, the tank having probably been put down, and Veronica and Chandler came back into Emmy’s room, with Chandler frantically closing the door behind her.

“Hi, Heather!” Veronica exclaimed, only to be harshly shushed by Chandler. Veronica blinked at her, confused. “What?”

“She doesn’t need loud noises right now!” she whispered harshly to them. Heather looked to Chandler, puzzled.

“Heather, what’s going on?” she questioned. “Why is Heather having a shutdown? What happened?”

“A shutdown? Oh, shit, I’m so sorry, Mara,” Veronica quickly said, covering their mouth. Emmy didn’t respond, instead just distracted herself with stroking Foxy. Veronica then turned to Chandler, who was nibbling her nails anxiously. Heather had not seen her this shaken up in a long time.

“Heather?”

Chandler swallowed, shaking her nervousness off quickly. She looked at Veronica and Heather seriously.

“Heather’s new step-mother… she  _ isn’t _ a step-mother,” she slowly said.

“She’s not?” Veronica asked.

“No.” She took a deep breath, as if it pained her to say it. “She’s her  _ actual _ mother.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Veronica had a good family therefore has to suffer through every Heather's bad ones now
> 
> also. sorry about the ending.
> 
> https://heathersgameoftag.tumblr.com/

**Author's Note:**

> a three parter is never a good sign :/
> 
> anyway who do y'all think will propose to Veronica first
> 
> https://heathersgameoftag.tumblr.com/


End file.
